Obama Ignores Terror Threat at His Own Peril
FOX NEWS: Communism is gone but Islamic radicalism and jihadism are with us. President Obama will have to find an effective way to deal with this new threat or the American people will find someone else who can.

In the wake of “11/5,” the attack at Fort Hood, Barack Obama faces a tough choice--like it or not.

The 44th president must choose to confront an unpleasant reality, head on--or else it will run him over. The issue is the threat of terrorist violence, here on the homefront.

Terrorism, and the debate over how to respond to terrorism, was the defining issue of the 43rd presidency. And now it’s apparent that Obama, too, will spend the bulk of his presidency confronting terror, from Afghanistan to new battlezones, such as central Texas.

Obama and fellow Democrats would rather, of course, talk about health care. But over the next few years, the Fort Hood shooting is going to be a bigger story, since it is connected to our relations, good and bad, with the entire Islamic world, including nuclear Pakistan and almost- nuclear Iran.

For his sake, and for ours, Obama needs to understand that sometimes even presidents don’t get to decide the agenda -- the agenda is decided for him. In such a situation, the question is whether or not the president can adapt to the new era and its new challenges.

So this president needs to launch an aggressive investigation, digging into every aspect of Thursday’s shooting rampage that left 13 dead and dozens injured. How did it happen? Who bears responsibility? And, most importantly, what must we change now? Otherwise, if Obama simply talks about health care and “cap-and-trade” and “don’t ask, don’t tell” and all the other staples of his 2008 agenda, he will be left in the dust by the cyclonic events of 2009 and beyond. And in the wake of the 11/5 shootings, his presidency could be blown away by a whirlwind of damaging leaks, embarrasing reports, and well-justified fears.

Obama will always have his base of support, of course, especially in the media. Taking their cues, as ever, from the siren song of secular liberalism, the Mainstream Media would rather talk about health care, with an occasional digression into gay marriage. As documented by the Media Research Center, MSM reporters are mostly loathe to draw anything outher than politically correct conclusions about the religious and ethnic dimensions of the Fort Hood mass murder.

Thus the MSM is likely to be left in the dust by more fearless, more energetic media. Columnists Dick Morris and Eileen McGann were blunt in their e-mail headline: “Ft. Hood Attack Was Terrorism.” And also on Sunday morning, the top dozen headlines at WorldNetDaily, a popular conservative Web site, dealt forcefully with Fort Hood. So while the MSM is bemoaning “stress,” “PTSD,” and “over-extension,” WorldNetDaily is offering an entirely different narrative, featuring headlines such as “Muslims: ‘America’s chickens have come to roost,’ U.S. Islamic street preachers declare Fort Hood victims got just desserts,” and “Shooter advised Obama Transition: Fort Hood triggerman aided team on Homeland Security task force,” and “Military jihadists fill ‘every branch’: Ultimate 5th column penetration, warns best-selling ‘Muslim Mafia’ [author]” One additional piece was penned by Joseph Farah, the Arab-American editor of WND, whose headline blared, “PC sickness killed our soldiers.” How will the commander-in-chief react to that?

Having bungled his first public remarks after the news of the killings at Fort Hood, Obama is already on the defensive. So, most likely, he and his staff will seek to change the subject as quickly as possible.

But if they try doing that, getting back to, say, “the public option,” they will fail. Because the issue isn’t going away. As Georgetown University terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman said over the weekend:

“I’m not saying it’s part of an organized campaign or a systematic strategy, but we're seeing a sea change when we have once a month a plot that is related somehow to Afghanistan, Iraq or what these people see is a war against Islam. It's too easy to dismiss them as unstable individuals when they have expressed strong religious beliefs with politics. That's the essence of the radicalization we're facing.”

In other words, Fort Hood was not a random event; it was part of a pattern. >>> James Pinkerton | Monday, November 09, 2009

Fort Hood Gunman Nidal Hasan Regains Consciousness
Major Nidal Hasan remains in critical but stable condition in hospital after shooting dead 13 army colleagues at Fort Hood last Thursday. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: The army psychiatrist suspected of shooting dead 13 soldiers on a US army base in Texas has regained consciousness and is able to speak, a hospital official said today.

Major Nidal Hasan was shot four times at the end of the gun rampage at Fort Hood in Texas in which 13 people, including a pregnant women soldier, were shot dead and 29 more were wounded, seven of them very seriously.

He survived and is being treated in a military hospital in San Antonio, where he was earlier today said to be in a critical but stable condition. He is able to breathe unaided after being removed from a ventilator on Saturday.

“He is talking. He is conversing with the medical staff,” said Maria Gellegos, spokeswoman for the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

When he is well enough to speak to investigators, Major Hasan will discover that he is suspected of links with Islamic extremism. FBI agents are investigating his connection with a radical preacher at a mosque where at least two of the September 11 hijackers worshipped just five months before the 9/11 attacks.

It has emerged that Major Hasan and his family attended the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Centre in Falls Church, Virginia, and that the funeral of his mother, Hanan, was held there on May 31 2001.

At that time the imam of the mosque was Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim radical who sees Islam and America as enemies.

Today Mr Awlaki made a posting on his blog titled: "Nidal Hasan Did The Right Thing". >>> Jenny Booth | Monday, November 09, 2009

Here is the posting:

Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing
ANWAR AL AWLAKI ON-LINE: Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn’t exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges.


Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the US army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.


The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former. The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidal’s operation.


The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -rather the duty- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy.


Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment –
Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor [through power]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (al-Nisa 136-137)


The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West. It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims.


May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act. Ameen [Source: Imam Anwar’s Blog] | Monday, November 09, 2009

Radical Imam Praises Hasan

Fort Hood Gunman Had Told US Military Colleagues that Infidels Should Have Their Throats Cut
THE TELEGRAPH: Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army doctor named as a suspect in the shooting death of 13 people and the wounding of 31 others at Fort Hood, Texas. Photo: The Telegraph
He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.

Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe. >>> Nick Allen in Fort Hood | Sunday, November 08, 2009

Muslim Population in the Military Raises Difficult Issues
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: The deadly rampage at Fort Hood is forcing Pentagon officials to confront difficult questions about the military's growing Muslim population.

The military has worked hard to recruit more Muslims since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the number of Muslim troops, while still small, has been increasing. There were 3,409 Muslims in the active-duty military as of April 2008, according to Pentagon statistics.

Military personnel don't have to disclose their religions, and many officials believe the actual number of Muslim soldiers may be at least 10,000 higher than the Pentagon statistics. For instance, the military "Officer Record Brief" of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, said he had "no religious preference" and didn't identify him as a Muslim.

Even now, Muslim soldiers remain fairly rare in some parts of the military. At West Point, Army officials said there were just 24 Muslim cadets out of a total student body of 4,400. The Muslim cadets worship in an interfaith center on the bucolic New York campus, but don't have a dedicated mosque.

The push to boost Muslim representation has proven to be a double-edged sword for the military, which desperately needs the Muslim soldiers for their language skills and cultural knowledge, but also worries that a small percentage of those soldiers might harbor extremist ideologies or choose to turn their guns on their fellow soldiers. >>> Yochi J. Dreazen | Saturday, November 07, 2009

Barack Obama Is Out of Step on Gays in the Military
TIMES ONLINE: It takes two kinds of bravery to come out in the Armed Forces. Those who show courage deserve more than political cowardice

Among all the promises of change that swept Barack Obama to power, none seemed more simple, symbolic or easier to implement than his pledge to permit openly gay men and women to serve in America’s Armed Forces.

That promise has been repeated often over the nine months since his election — “don’t doubt the direction we are heading, or the destination we will reach”, he declared last weekend — yet America’s homosexual and lesbian soldiers remain firmly barricaded inside the closet.

The present policy, requiring gays to conceal their sexual orientation or face being discharged, could be overturned by executive order or legislation, yet Mr Obama apparently has little appetite for doing so. No timetable for a change in the 16-year-old policy has been set, and the White House is said to want to delay action into the distant future. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has become, under the Obama presidency, Don’t Rock the Boat, Don’t Act.

The law as it stands is a monument to hypocrisy, requiring homosexual soldiers to live a lie and allowing the military brass to ignore reality. With America fighting two wars and recruitment dwindling, it is also astonishingly short-sighted. More than 12,000 members of the US Armed Forces have been discharged since Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell came into force.

The law passed by Congress in 1993 states: “The presence in the Armed Forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”

As Britain’s experience shows, this is demonstrably untrue. A decade ago, when Britain was forced to accept gay troops by the European Court of Human Rights, some predicted heterosexual mutiny. “If the doors were opened to homosexuals, there would be a polarisation, people would be ostracised,” Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Armitage (retired), the former head of military intelligence, insisted. “Men don’t like taking showers with men who like taking showers with men.”

As it turned out, the vast majority of serving soldiers accepted openly gay comrades without protest or, even more healthily, with benign lack of concern. At least two dozen armies across the world have admitted homosexuals and lesbians without any impact on operational effectiveness or recruitment levels. >>> Ben Macintyre | Thursday, October 15, 2009

Obama Will Soon Tackle Gay Ban in Forces, Says Adviser
THE SCOTSMAN: PRESIDENT Barack Obama will focus "at the right time" on how to overturn the ban on gay people serving in the military, according to a top aide.

General James Jones, the president's national security adviser, said yesterday: "I don't think it's going to be – it's not years, it will be teed up appropriately."

The Democrat-led Congress is considering repealing the 1993 law, although no action is expected until early next year. The largest number of homosexuals ousted under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy came in 2001, when 1,227 were discharged.

This month Senate majority leader Harry Reid wrote to Mr Obama and defence secretary Robert Gates asking for a review of the cases of two US officers discharged from the military because of their sexuality. "At a time when we are fighting two wars, I do not believe we can afford to discharge any qualified individual who is willing to serve our country," he said[.] [Source: The Scotsman] | Monday, October 05, 2009

Related: Gays in the US Military – Mark >>> | Monday, September 21, 2009

Gay Love: Two Military [Men]

Ban on Tobacco Urged in Military
USA TODAY: WASHINGTON — Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.

Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon's office of clinical and program policy, says he will recommend that Gates adopt proposals by a federal study that cites rising tobacco use and higher costs for the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs as reasons for the ban.

The study by the Institute of Medicine, requested by the VA and Pentagon, calls for a phased-in ban over a period of years, perhaps up to 20. "We'll certainly be taking that recommendation forward," Smith says.

A tobacco ban would confront a military culture, the report says, in which "the image of the battle-weary soldier in fatigues and helmet, fighting for his country, has frequently included his lit cigarette."

Also, the report said, troops worn out by repeated deployments often rely on cigarettes as a "stress reliever." The study found that tobacco use in the military increased after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.

Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said the department supports a smoke-free military "and believes it is achievable." She declined to elaborate on any possible ban.

One in three service members use tobacco, the report says, compared with one in five adult Americans. The heaviest smokers are soldiers and Marines, who have done most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the study says. About 37% of soldiers use tobacco and 36% of Marines. Combat veterans are 50% more likely to use tobacco than troops who haven't seen combat. >>> Gregg Zoroya, USA Today | Thursday, July 09, 2009

More Sh** from the White House! Reform Obama First!
To expect people to die for their country and then deny them cigarettes is disgraceful! – ©Mark

MAIL Online: It is an iconic image of movies and real life - a battle-weary GI sits down during a lull in the fighting and sucks on a calming cigarette.

It has endured through two world wars, and major conflicts such as Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq and numerous Hollywood blockbusters - John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in the D-Day blockbuster, The Longest Day and Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan.

But it could all soon be a thing of the past - because of health and cost concerns.

Pentagon health experts are urging US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to ban smoking by troops and end the sale of tobacco in PXs, the military base shops where cut-price cigarettes have always been a popular line.

And it’s all due to a new study revealing the hidden cost to America’s three million men and women serving in the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Reserve.

An investigation by the influential Institute of Medicine, commissioned by the Pentagon found that one in three members of the US services use tobacco, compared with one in five adult Americans.

The heaviest smokers - maybe, not surprisingly - were soldiers and Marines who had done most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

About 37 per cent of soldiers used tobacco and 36 per cent of Marines.

Combat veterans were 50 per cent more likely to use tobacco than troops who hadn't seen combat, it said. The report acknowledges that it is calling for a seismic change.

The sheer number of troops smoking also had economic costs. Researchers discovered that smoking and chewing tobacco costs the Pentagon more than £540 million a year in medical care and lost productivity.

The Department of Veterans Affairs spent up to £4billion a year on treatment for tobacco-related illnesses, the report added.
In comparison, tobacco sales in PXs netted less than £60 million a year which was spent on base recreation schemes and family support programmes.

It said: ‘A ban would confront a military culture in which the image of the battle-weary soldier in fatigues and helmet, fighting for his country, has frequently included his lit cigarette.

Troops worn out by repeated deployments often relied on cigarettes as a ‘stress reliever.’ Pentagon calls for smoking ban among US soldiers >>> Barry Whigmore | Friday, July 09, 2009

US Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship
NEW YORK TIMES: Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months.

Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. But the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan.

Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.

“The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the Army, which is leading the pilot program. “There will be some very talented folks in this group.” >>> By Julia Preston | Saturday, February 14, 2009

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Le Pentagone va recruter des étrangers en leur offrant la citoyenneté

ETATS-UNIS | Le Pentagone va recruter parmi les immigrés hautement qualifiés présents sur le sol américain mais n'ayant pas le statut de résident permanent, leur offrant un accès privilégié à la nationalité américaine, a rapporté dimanche le New York Times.

Les étrangers ayant le statut de résident permanent, ou les titulaires de la "green card" (permis de travail sans restriction de temps), avaient déjà la possibilité de travailler pour le Pentagone mais c'est la première fois depuis la guerre du Vietnam que les portes de l'armée s'ouvrent aux étrangers disposant de visas provisoires (et à condition qu'ils soient aux Etats-Unis depuis au moins deux ans), a expliqué le quotidien new-yorkais. >>> AFP | Dimanche 15 Février 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
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Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Gay Arabic Linguist: Kicked Out of the US Military


Mark Alexander

The Jihad Must Be Stopped, But Time Is Tight
FINANCIAL TIMES: Editorial - It was perfectly forseeable, and indeed predicted, that the US-led invasion of Iraq, far from striking a decisive blow against terrorism, would proliferate militant Islamism all over the Arab and Muslim worlds, from where a new generation of jihadis would strike into Europe and the west. The roll-call of atrocities, from Casablanca to Istanbul, Bali to Mumbai, Riyadh to Amman, London to Madrid, is bloody indeed. Now, however, jihadi extremism is sprouting like poisonous mushrooms in the darkness enveloping the Middle East.

It is not just that all America’s enemies – al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas – have been strengthened by the policies of the US and its allies. The totalitarian jihadism peddled by Osama bin Laden and his growing following is emerging in new chapters all over the Middle East, including in places it has never before been seen. Time is short to halt spread of Jihadism (more)

Mark Alexander